Soybeans Plus (Keledai Plus)

Looking back over some of my past posts, I came across this one about soy beans that resonates with what's happening at the current time. The post is dated Saturday, January 19, 2008 and refers to an article in The Jakarta Post which I'll reproduce in full below because of its importance:

Tempeh and tofu would not have disappeared from the family dining room, as it did this week, if the country's government had listened to Indonesia's scientists. 

The archipelago would have been able to stop importing soybeans from the U.S. and would probably even be exporting a high-yield protein-rich bean to other countries. 

"Perhaps we didn't have the time to pay attention to soybeans then," said Endang Sukara, deputy chairman of the natural sciences department of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). 

But in 2004 and after successfully breeding "newly improved" soybeans, LIPI scientists invited then-President Megawati and her agriculture officials to see their high-yield harvest in South Sumatra. Endang wasn't joking when he said the soybeans had added value. Kedelai Plus, the new improved variety, was able to produce up to three times the yield compared to regular soybeans and required less than half the amount of fertilizer. 

"We told the government all about it, and they were there during the harvesting at Musi Rawas in South Sumatra," Endang said at LIPI's Center for Biotechnology Research in Cibinong, West Java. "But they never followed it up." 

To create Kedelai Plus, a team of scientists, led by Harmastini Sukiman, isolated hundreds of Rhizobiums, a microbe that binds Nitrogen from the ground for soybean roots to absorb. They then discovered one special string called Rhizobium B64. 

"The strain worked really well for soybeans by boosting productivity and improving the plants' resistance to diseases," Harmastini said. "Soybean plants produce more beans using B64." 

The scientists grew Kedelai Plus in many areas across Indonesia, including South Sumatra, North Sumatra, West Java and East Java, with outstanding results. Farmers in Indonesia can produce on average up to 1.2 tons of soybeans per hectare, but in every harvest Kedelai Plus was yielding 2.4 to 4.5 tons per hectare. The team discovered a way to inject the microbe into the soybean, which meant farmers no longer had to glue the microbe onto the bean skin, or sprinkle it across the soil. 

"Rhizobiums grow abundantly in the soil, so for Rhizobium B64 to survive the competition, we must make sure there are enough B64 cells for the soybean roots to absorb," Harmastini said. 

With the help of a special vacuuming machine, LIPI was able to turn any type of soybean variety into Kedelai Plus with similar results. Endang said he was confident the new technology would see Indonesia end its dependency on expensive, imported American soybeans. 

"All the government needs to do now is up-scale the machine and produce Kedelai Plus in various seed centers so that farmers can purchase them at affordable prices," he said. 

Endang said he has been dreaming of a day when he could drink soybean milk, snack on soybean yogurt and have a tempeh burger for lunch, all made from domestic soybeans. But for the time being, farmers wishing to plant "newly improved" soybeans can bring their own seeds to LIPI in Cibinong to be injected with Rhizobium B64 at a cost of Rp 50,000 (US$ 5.30) for 20 kilograms of soybean seed.

Around the time I made this blog post, there were massive protests in Indonesia over the rising price of soybeans (due to government tariffs) and in another post I made the comment:

Massive protests in Jakarta have seen the Government belatedly remove the tariff on imported soybeans but there is continued demand to abolish the existing system whereby there are only four designated importers of the 1.3 million tonnes of soybeans imported. These four companies effectively form a highly lucrative cartel that is profiting at the expense of the local producers of tofu and tempeh. If the market were more open, the suspicion is that prices would decline as the competition increased. That may not happen. 

At the present time, soybean prices are rising yet again, this time because of the depreciating value of the rupiah. Here is a link September 2018 video about the problem with the caption:

Depresiasi rupiah terhadap dolar AS membuat harga kedelai melambung. Akibatnya, banyak pengusaha tahu dan tempe merumahkan pegawainya that translates to Depreciation of the rupiah against the US dollar makes soybean prices soar. As a result, many tofu and tempe entrepreneurs lay off their employees.

I wonder how much this support this Keledai Plus has received from the Indonesian Government over the past ten years. Back then, Indonesia imported over 70% of its soybean, with 80-90% coming from the United States and the rest from Argentina. The hope that Keledai Plus offered was the Indonesia would eventually become self-sufficient in soybean production.

The following excerpt from this online source shows that this has not happened:

The key phrase of course is local production remains stagnant. Note that in 2010, Indonesia was importing 1.85 million tonnes of soybeans while in 2016 the figure was 2.58 million tonnes, an increase of over 39%. Clearly, for whatever reasons, Keledai Plus has not fulfilled its promise. This Kompas article from January of 2008 emphasised the problem by quoting Deputy for Life Sciences LIPI, Prof. Dr. Endang Sukara:

... actually during the time of President Megawati, soybeans plus this had been introduced, but somehow the results of this research have not been used massively. "This is a matter of policy, a trade system problem that prioritizes imports in the form of finished soybeans, rather than developing soybean farming," he said. In fact, he reminded, the imported soybeans are genetically engineered soybeans while the domestic soybeans plus biodiversity are native. 

It's very disappointing that local production of soybeans in Indonesia has languished over the past decade. The tofu and tempe that are produced from soybeans are an important source of protein for poor people in Indonesia.

Meher Baba and Iran

Meher Baba was born Merwan Sheriar Irani. There is a detailed account of his visits to Iran to be found at this site, including information about his Iranian heritage and his connections with various Iranians. Here is a copy of the map that's presented on the site with the city of Mashhad highlighted with a blue rectangle. 

The significance of this city can be read in the following quote on the same site:

Aloba reports that, in May 1943, Meher Baba stated: “The tree of my divine manifestation is to be planted at Mashhad, where it will grow and spread, ultimately covering the whole world”. This theme for long remained obscure; the rendition has varied, another version being worded as: "The seed of the tree of my universal manifestation is planted in Mashhad." 

There is a strong association here with Meher Baba's third visit to Iran in June 1931, when he stayed at Mashhad, ignoring other cities. There he favoured a major Shi'ite shrine for purposes of seclusion on three nights. This was the tomb of Imam Ali Reza (765-818). That sojourn evidenced both the religious neutrality and incognito policy of Meher Baba, who moved about the streets of Mashhad in disguise. The visitor was only able to enter the venerated shrine because a prominent mulla, who was caretaker, relaxed rules of admission after experiencing a powerful dream which melted his resistance.

Mashhad is a city of three million people described by Wikipedia as:

Mashhad, also spelled Mashad or Meshad, is the second most populous city in Iran and the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province. It is located in the northeast of the country, near the borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. It has a population of 3,001,184 inhabitants (2016 census), which includes the areas of Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh. It was a major oasis along the ancient Silk Road connecting with Merv to the east. 

The city is named after the "shrine" of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam. The Imam was buried in a village in Khorasan, which afterwards gained the name Mashhad, meaning the place of martyrdom. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid is also buried within the shrine. 

Mashhad has been governed by different ethnic groups over the course of its history. The city enjoyed relative prosperity in the Mongol period.

Mashhad is also known colloquially as the city of Ferdowsi, after the Iranian poet who composed the Shahnameh. The city is the hometown of some of the most significant Iranian literary figures and artists, such as the poet Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the traditional Iranian singer and composer. Ferdowsi and Akhavan Sales are both buried in Tus, an ancient city that is considered to be the main origin of the current city of Mashhad. 

On 30 October 2009 (the anniversary of the death of Imam Reza), Iran's then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Mashhad to be "Iran's spiritual capital".

Prior to this third visit to Iran, Meher Baba made a fleeting visit in 1924 and a second, more sustained visit in the autumn of 1929, including a visit to Isfahan and a sojourn at the desert city of Yazd. Given Baba's Iranian heritage and his visits, it's not surprising that Iran has been so prominent in the history of the twentieth century and remains very much in the news as this second decade of the twenty first century draws to a close. The country may well play a pivotal role in world events over the coming months and years.